It is sometimes difficult
to understand why the music of a specific
composer all of a sudden experiences
a kind of 'renaissance'. That is certainly
the case with Gottfried August Homilius.
For a long time his was merely a name
from the circle around Johann Sebastian
Bach; he was one of Bach’s pupils. At
least among organists he was a well-known
figure: he composed a large number of
organ works. Among these were chorale
arrangements which were useful to play
during Sunday services, at least in
Protestant churches in Germany and other
countries on the European continent
where chorales of German origin are
sung. That said, as a composer of vocal
works, he was a completely unknown quantity.
Many years ago the German conductor
Hermann Max recorded some of his motets
with his Jugendkantorei Dormagen - now
the Rheinische Kantorei. Later one of
his Passions was recorded. Neither of
these recordings led to the Homilius
renaissance we are now experiencing.
The German label Carus
has played a considerable role in the
Homilius renaissance: all recent recordings
of Homilius's works have appeared on
this label. It all started with a collection
of motets, recorded by the Stuttgart
Chamber Choir, directed by Frieder Bernius.
Then two discs with cantatas were released.
All of these have been reviewed here
on MusicWeb. This year two other recordings
appeared, both 'world premiere recordings',
as the covers say. In addition to the
St John Passion the Passion cantata
'Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt
die Schuld' was released (also reviewed
here). These two works were both written
for Passiontide, but otherwise they
are very different in character.
The number of copies
of Homilius's sacred works testify how
highly regarded he was in his time.
And writers about music from the last
quarter of the 18th century praised
him as "the best composer of church
music" (Johann Friedrich Reichardt,
1776) or "without argument, our greatest
church composer" (Ernst Ludwig Gerber,
1790). As late as 1826 the musicologist
Hans Georg Nägeli wrote: "But he,
Homilius, was the first who in his choruses
delivered the German language with strength,
which elevates the chorus to a much
more spiritual product of art as even
Bach's art of writing fugues was able
to do."
Despite this most of
Homilius's sacred music eventually disappeared
into oblivion. The discovery of the
Berlin Singakademie archive in Kiev
in 1999 has borne fruit in many ways.
One of these is in the bringing to the
surface of hitherto unknown compositions,
in particular by composers from the
generation of the sons of Bach. The
finding of manuscripts long thought
lost or simply unknown has made it possible
to solve questions regarding the authorship
of compositions found or merely listed
in other sources. That has also been
the case in regard to this St John Passion.
Manuscripts from the archive made it
possible to confirm that this composition
was indeed written by Homilius. The
booklet does not tell us when it was
composed, so I assume that detail is
not known. It can't be later than 1776,
the year when it was performed by Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg. CPE
had also performed Homilius's St Mark
Passion in 1770 and his St Luke Passion
in 1775.
The St John Passion
is written in the tradition of the oratorio-Passion
like those by Johann Sebastian Bach.
It is based on the Biblical account
of the suffering and death of Jesus,
with additional chorales and arias.
The author of the texts of the arias
is unknown. Sacred music of Homilius's
time often reflected the spirit and
ideals of the Enlightenment, a central
element of which was the moral edification
of the people. Arias customarily address
the audience, telling them how to behave
towards their neighbours, but in this
Passion that is hardly the case. In
this respect this Passion is closer
to Johann Sebastian Bach's Passions
than to those of Telemann. Most arias
reflect a direct reaction to what has
happened to Jesus, and personal guilt
is often emphasized. For instance, when
Peter has denied Christ, the soprano
sings an accompanied recitative containing
a line like "God, so often have I boldly
strayed, stubbornly disavowed you, and
failed in my duty to you". And the following
aria says: "To you, the Father who forgives,
I bewail my fall with remorse. Ah Father!
Father of mercifulness! May God be gracious
and forgive me". This is not fundamentally
different from the aria 'Erbarme dich'
in Bach's St Matthew Passion sung at
this very moment in the story.
There is one aspect
where this oratorio Passion embraces
a feature of the contemporary Passion
oratorio the genre that contains a paraphrase
of and a contemplation on the Passion:
one or more arias are given to Jesus.
This happens once in this oratorio.
When he meets Judas and his entourage
he sings "Now comes the hour of my suffering,
I praise God that it may come. I drink
the cup of wrath rejoicing, I drink
it for my brothers." In the second part
even God the Father has an aria. When
Jesus has told Pilate: "Thou couldest
have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above", the
following aria says: "I am the Almighty,
the heavens and worlds, the whole of
unending Creation is mine." In Bach's
cantatas we also meet the 'vox Dei',
but there it always speaks through texts
from the Bible; there is none of the
free poetry used here. In both cases
Homilius's score refrains from explicit
mention of either Christ or God the
Father, but the content of these arias
is very obvious.
The musical language
of sacred music from Homilius's time
often causes problems to listeners acquainted
with the style of Bach's Passions. In
the booklet Uwe Wolf writes: "the arias
make an unusually straightforward, and
perhaps also slightly saccharine impression.
They are notable examples of Homilius's
quest for simple, agreeable music. Indicative
for the era is the slow rate at which
the basic chords change, and also that
the full orchestra is wholly subservient
to the one melody – typical characteristics
of the arias from the period which brought
this church music into great disrepute
in the 20th century". It has to be added
that this quest for "simple, agreeable
music" is by no means a speciality of
Homilius: it reflects the ideal of the
Enlightenment which I have already mentioned.
Not only the arias are evidence of this,
but also the recitatives: there are
none of the frequent modulations in
the Evangelist's recitatives that one
encounters in Bach's Passions.
This should not create
the impression that the music is in
any way uninteresting or predictable.
Far from it. There are some examples
of Homilius versatility and originality
in his dealing with the form of the
aria. Most of them are written in the
da capo form, but there are some where
that form is dropped. Jesus' aria in
the first part which I have already
mentioned is an interesting example
of this. Here the B section is an accompanied
recitative. And that is followed by
a repeat of the music of the A-section
but with a different text. The second
part contains a duet – the only one
in this work – for two sopranos, representing
an old and a young person respectively,
in which the da capo form is extended:
the pattern is ABACA – the C section
being sung by only one of the sopranos.
There are several moments
where the text is effectively translated
into music, for instance in using melismas
on words like "weinen" (weep), "verzeihen"
(forgive), "Seligkeit" (salvation) and
"Freude" (joy). Homilius is well aware
of the apparatus of musical figures
so characteristic of the German baroque,
as he shows in the use of a sudden leap
downwards on "Fall" (fall) in the aria
"Vor dir, dem Vater, der verzeiht, bewein
ich meinen Fall voll Reue" (To you,
the Father who forgive, I bewail my
fall with remorse.). In the chorale
"Gloria sei dir gesungen" – a song of
praise for the Kingdom of Heaven which
comes, following Jesus saying "now is
my kingdom not from hence" – Homilius
uses the full power of the horns to
emphasize its jubilant character.
How large the forces
were which Homilius used to perform
his St John Passion is difficult to
say. One can be sure, though, that he
didn't have a choir as large as the
Dresdner Kreuzchor, which sings very
well, although the trebles may be a
little too dominant. I would have preferred
the chorales to be sung with a bit less
legato, stressing the individual words
more. The turbae come out very impressively,
and the chorale "Gloria sei dir gesungen"
as well as the closing chorus "O Gottes
Lamm" are beautifully realised. The
orchestra is excellent, throughout,
and is very colourful. The balance and
blending between the singers and the
orchestra is very good, which is especially
important as often the instruments double
or octavate the vocal lines.
Jan Kobow gives an
immaculate interpretation of the Evangelist
and of the tenor arias. He has a very
clear voice, perfect diction and articulation
and sings his part with the right amount
of rhythmic freedom. Tobias Berndt is
less satisfying in his account of the
part of Jesus, which is a little too
stiff and bland. In his arias he is
much better. Jana Reiner and Katja Fischer
– the latter only sings in the duet
– and Franz Vitzthum also give very
fine performances. The duet of the two
sopranos is one of the highlights of
this oratorio.
As you will be able
to gather from what I have written I
am very happy with this release. The
St John Passion by Homilius is a very
interesting and musically rewarding
addition to the repertoire of Passion
music. It also gets a very fine performance
here, which I strongly recommend.
Johan van Veen
for details
Jana Reiner, Katja Fischer (soprano);
Franz Vitzthum (alto); Jan Kobow (tenor);
Tobias Berndt, Clemens Heidrich (bass)
